Friday, May 15, 2009

We are enjoying being back in Rocky Mount. We returned to Jordan Creek on Wednesday, and had our children and their families with us for a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. Ondra has been visiting her parents in Hamlet since Tuesday and they are doing great! They are exercising every Mon., Wed., and Fri. at the First Health in Rockingham and we are so proud that they are going. Ondra also got to see Millie and Johnny while in Hamlet and also visited with her brother and wife, Oliver and Carol. Ondra had her niece, Angela, cut her hair while in Hamlet. She always does a good job. Angela has lost close to 50 pounds and is having bypass surgery in a couple of weeks. We wish her all the best. We both are going to Myrtle Beach today to see Justin and Lindsey and Nelson's mother, his sister, Brenda, and his brother Ike, and his wife Babs. We plan to stay there until the middle of next week and then we are going back to the boat where we will go to Morehead City and out to Cape Lookout with our son, Will, his wife Stacey, and our grandson, Jackson for Memorial Day Weekend. It is so nice getting to spend the extra time with our friends and family now that we are retired. We do not have a long boat trip planned until next fall. However, we will be using the boat for many short trips this summer. You all are welcome to join us for a trip. Just let us know when you can go. We love having others with us. We would like to go back south and to the Bahamas this fall.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

On Wednesday, Susan brought Jackson over to the docks to stay with us until Will came after work to pick us up and take us to Swansboro where we stayed until Sunday night.Yes, we slept in a king size bed and took real showers for the first time in quite a while.We do shower on the boat but it has to be quick and the only way the water runs is if you are pushing a button. “Happy Birthday”, Jackson! We woke Jackson on Thursday morning by singing Happy Birthday to him. He sat up in the bed with a big smile on his face. I cannot believe he is now six years old. Nelson and I went with Stacey to take him to school. Afterwards, Stacey and I took Nelson to the boat and we went shopping for items for Jackson’s birthday. We bought cupcakes for Jackson’s class and carried them for lunch. Jackson was so excited to see us all there to have lunch with him. His teacher had made him a birthday crown and the entire lunchroom sing the birthday song to him. We then checked him out for the remainder of the day and we went to the boat where Jackson caught a small fish and we played games until Will returned from work. We had a birthday celebration there at the boat and Jackson opened his gifts and we all ate an alligator cake. It was mostly icing. We had a fun day. On Friday, Nelson and I borrowed Will’s Car and drove beyond Santee Cooper to meet Loretta and Mac who had driven our car to meet us on their way to Greenville, SC to see their family. We were so thankful that they drove our car so we did not have to drive all the way to Florida to get it. We got back to Will’s around dinner time. We went to the Red Barn for a seafood dinner. Stacey met us there after work. On Saturday morning, we went to see Jackson’s soccer game at his school. After going by the boat, we all met Will and Stacey’s friends Sammy and Lois for late afternoon lunch at Ruddy Ducks on the waterfront in Morehead City. We ate there several times while our boat was in Morehead. They had a good shrimp sandwich which Nelson can’t get enough. I enjoyed a flounder Reuben. We played many games of Uno Attack with Jackson. On Sunday, Nelson borrowed Will’s car again and he and I drove to Jordan Creek to take our car so we would have it when we got there on our boat the following week. It took us about three hours to drive there and back. I spent the remainder of the day, playing with Jackson outside as it was a beautiful day to be outside. Nelson and I kept Jackson Sunday and Stacey and Will went out for a dinner with just the two of them. When they returned, I had already explained to Jackson that we would be going back to the boat that night so we could leave Morehead the following morning and head back to Jordan Creek. On Monday morning after taking Jackson to school, Will came by the boat to help us get the boat out of the slip. The wind was blowing twenty plus knots and the currents were pushing us against the docks. We had Will and four other men trying to get us away from the dock but we were all unsuccessful. The winds and current were stronger than we could handle. We bent the cooking grill on the rail of the boat and broke out the green running light. The bow rail is a little bit out of line but not bad. We decided to stay until the currents and winds changed. We did not want to do further damage to the boat. Susan brought Jackson by the boat after school and Will came to pick him up after work. When he got there, the winds were not blowing as bad and the current had changed. Will said that he thought he could help us get out of the slip now and he did. We departed Morehead about 5:00 that afternoon and headed north to Oriental. We stopped at Cedar Creek and anchored for the night. Tuesday morning, we pulled the anchor and headed across the Neuse River with six sailboats in front of us and four sailboats behind us. We got almost across when the light rains started. The river was very calm and we were inside the ICW and out of the rain for about an hour. When we entered the Pamlico River, we had heavy rains, winds, thunder and lightning. Nelson said the river was the roughest he had ever seen it. We had rains for the remainder of our trip. When we got to Jordan Creek, it was still raining so we just went bow first into our slip. What a day on the water! We were excited to be at the end of our trip. We started getting things packed and ready to pack the car for our trip to Rocky Mount. We had a break in the rain so we loaded the things we had ready in the car sand finished packing the car this morning. Today, Wednesday, May 6 we put the last touches on the boat and loaded the remainder of the bags and drove away from the docks around 11:45. We stopped at Hardees for a LittleThickburger and returned to Rocky Mount at 1:30 today. Our first stop was at Keith and Jane Abbotts to fetch our mail and then on to 3402 Brookview Drive. Home again, Home again, jiggidy jig! We had a wonderful trip and we enjoyed sharing it with you through our blog. Last Boat will be resting for the next few weeks while we get caught up on visiting with friends and families.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Hello EveryoneWe are now in Morehead City, NC and very excited to be back in NC and with Will, Stacey & Jackson. I will Back up and let you know how we arrived here so soon and ahead of schedule.On Friday, April 24, we motored out of St. Catherine’s sound and sailed the ocean from 6:15 am till coming back inside at St. Helena Sound and anchored at 8:15 pm which is beyond Beaufort, SC. The day on the ocean was wonderful. The weather was perfect. We had winds to motor sail and the temperature got up to 90 degrees. If we had been in the ICW, we would have covered 103 miles. But, traveling the ICW we could have not been as far because there are too many turns and curves and we might have gone aground as the tides get very low in Georgia. The ocean is a straight shot and when it is calm, you can really make good travel time.On Saturday, April 25, at 6:30, we ran the ICW to Charleston, SC. We had a great day of motoring. There was no good outlet into the ocean. We had another beautiful weather day. We arrived in Charleston about 3:00 in the afternoon. We found an anchorage right beside the City docks and there we met our friends, Chris & Marie on “Spirit”. They had returned from the Bahamas and we finally caught up with them on their return trip up north. We had dinner together on Last Boat and heard all about their adventures on their trip to the Bahamas and them on our trip to Western Florida.After one night in Charleston, we all decided to leave the next morning and go the ICW to Georgetown, SC for a night. On our way out on Sunday morning around 6:30am, Chris called us and said they had decided if we agreed to enter the ocean instead of ICW. We agreed so out to the inlet we go. The oceans were so calm, we could not even sail.Later, we got another call from Chris saying that they thought we should try to make up some time and stay in the ocean and travel all the way to Beaufort, NC. We were shocked but he said that we could make it in 40 hours which meant we would be in the ocean all night and not get to Beaufort until the following night around 9:00. I was not exactly excited about this but liked the idea of getting here sooner. The unknown can make you very uncomfortable and nervous. Well, we did it and did make good time and did arrive in Beaufort by 8:30 pm on Monday night. I was so glad to see land again. We were about 40 miles out in the ocean and saw nothing but a few fishing boats during the day. On Sunday during the day, we tried to sail but we had very little wind and it was on our nose most all day. We did motor sail all day and all night. Nelson and I both stayed outside on the deck all night and took turns steering the boat to keep Chris and Marie’s boat lights in sight as we were following them. Their lights were the only lights we saw until early morning when we saw the lights of a large freighter further out on the ocean than we. It appeared to be going the same direction as we were. Thank goodness, it was not close to us. We took turns napping; however, I do not think me or Nelson slept very much at all. I was very glad to see the sun rising the next morning around 6:30am. We had to motor sail all day as the winds were not blowing and the ocean was very calm. I prayed to God to keep us safe and keep the waters calm and my prayers were answered. The ocean was just like a lake. Everyone else said they were too calm because we could not sail. I didn’t mind. On Monday, our last day on the ocean, we ran into a pod of dolphin and they stayed at the bow of our boat for at least thirty minutes. I got some neat pictures of them swimming with the boat bow. Sometimes, there would be five of them at the same time. We enjoyed watching them from the boat. I told Nelson, they made being in the ocean worth while. They were really fun to watch and did not seem to mind that we were standing right over them on the boat talking, laughing and just being excited about seeing so many of them at the same time. We have really seen many of them on our trip but never that many at one time. We also saw several turtles and two sunfish. Boy, are they weird looking fish and very big. Someone told us they eat jellyfish. What an adventure on the ocean! Nelson thought he did not have enough fuel to make Beaufort, so we hooked up with Chris’s boat just long enough to get his five gallon fuel tank. Just as we were passing it, our boat got too close to his and Chris dropped the tank into the ocean. Lucky for us, Nelson was able to retrieve it with the boat hook before it got too far away from the boat. Yes, it was floating as the fuel was lighter than the water and also in a plastic bottle. Also, we were glad we did not do any damage to their boat when we ran together. What a day! We went over 160 miles in the ocean before arriving in Beaufort, NC. On Monday, April 27th, we had the pleasure of meeting Jackson at the docks on our dinghy. Susan, his babysitter, brought him to us after school and he stayed with us until he and Will went back to their house around 8:30 that night after having dinner with us at Clawson’s here in Beaufort. Chris and Marie also joined us. We loved seeing that sweet little boy come running to us with open arms. We were as glad to see him. It was a wonderful reunion for us all.On Tuesday, April 27, we moved our boat over to the city docks in Morehead City. We also went to spend the remainder of our time in Morehead with Will, Stacey, and Jackson in Swansboro, NC. We like having the boat at docks when we are not on it. The winds have been awfully strong every since we have been here. You know we are having a great time with our son and his family this week. We hope to get back to Jordan Creek next week.